Mark Curphey – SecurityBuddha.com

I have been getting quite a few mails from various folks asking me questions about a variety of topics related to why I left Foundstone. I decided to post the reasons here to save having to write similar emails and forgetting something in each of them.

• Companies change
• Family
• American politics
• Need a new challenge
• A hot idea
• MSFT and the changing security landscape

Companies change – When I joined Foundstone it was about a year prior to being acquired by Big Mac; oops I meant McAfee. We were a 100 person independent company and everybody was very proud of being part of the team and shaping the company. Foundstone was the best work experience I have had to date and certainly back in the early days was the type of company I want to build.  It was very entrepreneurial and you really felt like you could do anything you wanted that made business sense. Work hard, play hard. No politics, everyone working towards the same goals. In my first year we built the software security business line which now accounts for a large chunk of the revenue. I got to work with many people I have come to regard as friends and some great clients. In short it was fun, working with great people and doing interesting work. When I was handed the reins I was truly honored to lead a great bunch of rock stars. However life moves on and after the acquisition in 2004 we found ourselves in a strange place. There were the occasional nuggets of good things but for the most part you had to really search them out. We all wanted to embrace the opportunity and see our business grow leaps and bounds but sadly we found ourselves become disillusioned and disappointed with “the borg”. Many of the core people drifted away (there are still a lot of great people left), many of our clients for years weren’t happy about the changes and the essence and spirit of the company just changed. I would love to truly spill the beans as I think it’s a good lesson in how not to nurture and extract the best from a brilliant bunch of passionate young people but lawyers will be lawyers and quite frankly I just don’t need the hassle right now.

Family – My wife never wanted to live in the States. She followed me and both the kids were born in California. As Jack (now 6) and Hana (4 next month) got older we hit a crunch time for schools. If we didn’t move now it would be a lot harder as they made strong friendships and became accustomed to the US culture. As my thoughts about building SourceClear became more serious it became obvious that what we needed as a family was a support network for my wife when I was travelling. I used to spend 3 weeks of the month on the road (and expect to do so again when SourceClear takes off) and so quite frankly it’s easier for me to deal with a longer commute than the family to be in a place they don’t really want to be.  Next year well likely need to have a pad in Manhattan / LA and the house here in France.

American politics – The experience of living in America was great. I learnt a lot and met some great people. Like most things in life some are good and some are bad. For me a large part of the current US politics was fundamentally against my personal beliefs and it became harder and harder sit by to watch. As a Visa holder I had no rights to vote. The environment, human rights and the undercurrent of violence in everything you see or watch on TV became a big issue.

Need for a new challenge – I like building things and not running them in a steady state. The early stages of Foundstone were great as we got to break new ground. As part of a big company that is a lot harder. I actually think it shouldn’t be and Intrepreneurs should be encouraged but that’s another story for another time.

Hot idea – I have had a few ideas for products over the last decade. Several have been built or are being built now; by others! I learnt that if you don’t do it someone else will. It may not be exactly as you thought but probably close enough to be successful. I first had the idea for SourceClear five years or more ago and it’s something that has only become more compelling as time moved on.  The market timing is right.

MSFT and the changing security landscape – I have never hidden the fact I am a big fan of MSFT. I am a developer MVP for security. I am neither blinded nor naive but I think they are a great example of modern business. They mix innovation with business acumen on a grand scale. No one does it better. When MSFT decided to enter the desktop security market it was clear to me from day one of the scale and the monumental change that it would have on the rest of the industry. Clearly the most affected players would be Symantec and McAfee. Most people were in denial, prepared to stand up and fight at any cost or have decided they have a god given right to be the sole provider of AV technology. Some of the big companies even went on the offensive slinging mud at MSFT claiming they created the problem in the first place. As irony struck when the mud flew, holes were being released in most security company’s products. I actually think the mud turned into egg mid-flight.  What security companies should have done was innovate their way out of the crisis instead of digging in their heels. If my desktop security product offered the ability to store my personal life securely and then intelligently map spam I would stick to it. If you are producing essentially the same product that you released a decade ago, be prepared to be displaced.

Note: I expect to update this post over time.